Creating The Right Environment For Your Creative Child To Flourish

By Alison Peacock, BA (Qts) Hons,
Primary School Deputy Head Teacher

Media reports over the last 12 months indicate that leading academics are concerned that childen today are being limited from expressing their natural creativity, initiative and freedom of choice through hi-tech toys and overly structured lifestyles: they are 'missing out on childhood'.

Creative play is in decline. Children are absorbing and recreating other people’s stories – gleaned from hours in front of televisions and computers – rather than coming up with their own ideas.

This is bad news for our future.  Creating the environment in which a child’s imagination can flourish is essential to creating independent thinkers and creative minds.  We need to encourage children to rediscover simple and creative play, where parents and children are fully engaged together.  This will contribute to the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of children as well as developing crucial lifelong skills, such as creative thought, problem-solving and perseverance to complete a task.

Products such Creaters® craft kits (www.creaters.co.uk) are an excellent concept for achieving these objectives. They are great fun for children (in a recent survey children gave them 80.6% for 'Fun to make') and get back to a traditional craft based play that is arguably more beneficial in key areas of child development than modern electronic gadgetry. With this creative approach children choose an image to cut out and glue from the topic pack. They select the various parts from the coloured templates using their cutting skills to create a unique piece of art. It can be as simple or as complicated as the child wishes it to be - the sky is the limit! Cutting carefully with scissors develops fine-motor skills generally, something that could be of value throughout their lives.

To finish a picture to a high standard, most children will need to dedicate at least an hour to the process. Of course some children may prefer to spend a few shorter sessions on their project coming back to it at a later date, but don’t be surprised if they become deeply involved and want to stick at until they are finished! Creaters® topics are all familiar to children from a young age, the designs are stimulating and the results can be extremely rewarding as children create a picture that is good enough to frame and the entire process is a great deal of fun.

So what can parents do to turn the tide of technology back to a healthier childhood learning process?  Following these simple tips can help ignite your child’s imagination:

• Make time in the day for simple, creative and fun play together, with educational, craft-based products, such as the one mentioned above
• Allow your child to make things as simply or as complicated as they want. Let them decide.
• Never stifle a child’s imagination – remember, the sky is the limit!
• Allow children to feel successful. Success will encourage further development.
• Talk about what the child is doing and ask them questions to further your child’s thought processes.
• Show children you enjoy imagining and creating too!

About The Author:
Alison Peacock is an experienced Primary School teacher with a real passion for her subject. As a mother of a young child herself, as well as a full-time educator, she is keen to see parents and children spending more time together in creative play. She has assisted College Creative Limited in the development of 'Creaters for young creators' to further this objective.

College Creative Limited is a family run business devoted to manufacturing and selling Creaters®, a range of craft-based educational products designed to spark a child's imagination and creativity, as well as teaching decision-making and perseverance. College Creative can be contacted on 01494 873856, or info@collegecreative.co.uk. The website is www.creaters.co.uk or www.collegecreative.co.uk.

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